Top Secret Rosies, a feature documentary by Associate Professor LeAnn Erickson, FMA, was featured in the April 29 IEEE Spectrum podcast. IEEE, the world’s largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity, has more than 400,000 members worldwide. The IEEE Foundation awarded Erickson a grant in support of the documentary.
Click here to listen to the podcast.
It started with a simple observation.
Peter Reynolds, assistant professor of theater, heard how his students discussed sexuality — in all its forms –with one another. They were conversations that he never experienced when he was in college.
“I sensed a difference in their attitude toward queerness,” he says.
The conversations were open and not enveloped by social stigma. It was a phenomenon that Reynolds wanted to explore creatively.
He teamed up with Associate Professor Scott Gratson, STRC, and together, they received a seed grant from Temple’s Office of the Provost to create a play about today’s young LGBT community.
The result is que[e]ry, which was featured April 29 at the Equality Forum, a global LGBT summit held in Philadelphia each year, in Gershman Hall, 401 S. Broad St. It ran on campus from March 13 to 15.
Reynolds, who directed the show, cast an ensemble of 21 students with no script and only a perception of what the resulting show would be, which he says was equally exciting and horrifying. Over the next four months, the ensemble members shared their own stories and interviewed others to create the script from scratch.
“What I found out was that there is just as much hatred, bigotry and violence as when I was in school,” he says.
The show consists of more than a dozen vignettes based on real-life experiences. None of the actors tell their own stories – Reynolds says the rehearsal process revealed that the scenes were more powerful when approached from the outside as an actor. All of the pieces were anonymously submitted by students and performed by other students in the ensemble.
Calvin Atkinson, a junior theater major, says the rehearsal process was unlike any other he experienced.
“The first time I saw [the piece I wrote], it was really strange,” he says. The actor went a different direction than what Atkinson truly had experienced. While at first taken aback, he soon was comforted by the separation of the piece from true life. “It’s not necessarily about my exact feelings being transferred to the stage,” he says. “But it keeps my story alive.”
On the opposite side, Atkinson says the first time he performed a piece he knew someone in the room had written was intimidating; he hoped he did it justice. “My monologue was a very true experience. It was so specific and had a strong character,” he says.
While some of the stories touch on dark issues, the students made sure to include a lot of humor into the show.
“We didn’t want it to be The Laramie Project,” says Cody Long, a religion major in the ensemble. “This is not a pity party about bullying or about hate crimes. We do make mistakes and have a variety of experiences that aren’t all bad.”
Julia Freeman, a sophomore majoring in theater and Spanish, calls que[e]ry one of the most collaborative efforts in which she has ever played a part. “Every single person involved in the production was more involved with the greater good of the production rather than the greater good of their career,” she says. “This was our baby.”
When parts of the script weren’t working as a fluid aspect of the show, cuts were made and no one left with injured egos.
Gratson says the stage is a powerful tool to deliver the messages behind que[e]ry.
“Theater provides a platform for audiences to see [this] narrative brought to life,” Gratson says. “Also, theater allows for students to emerge as true citizen artists, giving voice to an important and growing movement in the United States. That voice, especially when coupled with the multimediated motifs that we included, really is accentuated through theater.”
It’s not just the audiences that have learned lessons from que[e]ry.
“I learned that I never cease to be amazed at the ability of our students. The students involved in this production came to the piece from throughout the university. They had a chance to not only work with other students from fields that were atypical of their usual studies but got to learn about an important part of human identity,” Gratson says. “The complexity of that identity and the dedication that our students have to better understand it — that was a lesson well-learned. Coupled with their drive toward achieving true inclusion and understanding of the queer community, this really became an amazing experience.”
Watch ensemble member Craig Bazan discuss the show on The 10! Show
Associate Professor Chris Harper, JOUR, will be presenting a paper at the 16th annual Arab-U.S. Association of Communication Educators. It discusses developing media outlets for Arab cities based on philadelphianeighborhoods.com.
This year, the conference, set for Oct. 28-31 in Beirut, Lebanon, is titled “Digital & Media Literacy: New Directions.” It will focus on the roles of digital and media literacy in contemporary media education, media practices and media policies.
Two School of Communications and Theater faculty members offered insights into the creative writing process April 16 as part of Alumni Weekend 2011.
Assistant Professor Gregg Feistman, STRC, and Assistant Professor Lori Tharps, JOUR, stepped out of their normal roles in front of the classroom and offered a peek into their lives as writers through a discussion moderated by Tamala Edwards of 6ABC.
They spoke of character creation and working toward an editor’s definition of “reader friendly.”
The two authors differed most on their approach to research.
Tharps says she knew her characters well when she first conceptualized Substitute Me, but she needed several years to fully develop them and her storyline.
“I didn’t sit down with a blank piece of paper and say ‘Speak to me,’” she said.
The years of research benefitted her when she finally sat down to write the novel; it only took three weeks.
Feistman, on the other hand, researched background for his novel, The War Merchants, as he wrote it. He said he doesn’t work from an outline, but knows the ending and will let the story tell itself. When it comes time to ensure he’s writing about something accurately, “Google is a wonderful tool.”
The editing process can be a gut wrenching process for both Tharps and Feistman, whether done by themselves or someone else.
“A good writer has to be a good self-editor, which is hard,” Feistman said. “If I don’t throw up [when editing], then it stays in.”
Tharps said her cousin’s criticism of a later draft was the hardest to swallow during her editing process. “She thought the main character was boring. It took a long time to care about her. That broke my heart.”
SCT’s Alumni Weekend events continued with a lunch in Annenberg Hall’s Joe First Media Center and a performance of Temple Theaters’ A View From the Bridge.
photos by Hillary Petrozziello/Aperture Agency
Associate Professor Sarah Drury, FMA, is one of several artists who have augmented the reality of Brooklyn through a smartphone exhibit called “Decollage: Torn Exteriors.” She is also the curator.
According to the organizers: “Augmented reality using the smartphone allows the participant to visualize digital images ‘collaged’ over the present location, as seen through the phone’s camera. Although this superimposition of visual information onto the landscape is an additive process, ‘Decollage: Torn Exteriors’ implies a tearing away of existing surfaces.”
Click here for more information.
One of the most misunderstood roles in theater, Inquirer Theater Critic Howard Shapiro tries to get a grasp on a dramaturg’s role in a production. He asked Assistant Professors Ed Sobel and Peter Reynolds to help.
“Probably if you asked 50 different dramaturgs, you’d get 50 different answers,” Sobel says. “Because the role can be so undefined, it allows a lot of latitude for doing it well and a lot of latitude for doing it badly.”
Click here to read the full story.
Assistant Professor George Miller, JOUR, produces a new local music magazine, Jump, out of his own laptop and those of his network of volunteers, students and interns. With low overhead costs and no ambition to get rich, the former photojournalist is committed to creating a print magazine. “We’re a big, glossy magazine — you can rip these pages out and hang them on your walls,” said Miller. The first issue will hit the streets March 11.
Click here to read the full story.
Assistant Professor Dustin Morrow, BTMM, explained how film editors manipulate time in an episode of “Academic Minute,” a new feature produced by Northeast Public Radio. “The incredible beauty of an editor’s work with time is his/her privilege to cut out life’s boring bits — inherently, this is one of the things that make movies so entertaining. For example, you may wish that instead of enduring your morning commute, the space around you could just dissolve from home to work. That works in the movies, but not in real life,” he said.
Click here to listen to his interview.
Assistant Professor Dustin Morrow, BTMM, explained how film editors manipulate time in an episode of “Academic Minute,” a new feature produced by Northeast Public Radio. “The incredible beauty of an editor’s work with time is his/her privilege to cut out life’s boring bits — inherently, this is one of the things that make movies so entertaining. For example, you may wish that instead of enduring your morning commute, the space around you could just dissolve from home to work. That works in the movies, but not in real life,” he said.
Click here to listen to his interview.
The Philadelphia Public Relations Society of America posted a Valentine’s Day blog sharing why some of its members “heart” public relations, including Assistant Professor Gregg Feistman and Meredith Avakian, JPRA ’06.
Click here to read the full story.